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Reviews (6)
11 November 2013
Great, but could be greater
There is no need to glorify Bach more than he has been glorified already. So the review is about the recording, the performer and the interpretation. Luckily, I have the same work recorded by Menuchin when he was very young (1935-6, I believe). Obviously, the quality of that recording is much less than this relatively late one. Nevertheless...Menuchin is always great, so the question how great he is here. Not being a professional musician, it seems that the late recording overdoes the technical aspects over the interpretation and mood. Some pieces are played at a speed that would embarass Pagannini. The early recording has youthful freshness, while this one has the maturity but for me, lacks charm.
Despite everything said so far, it is a great performance, but in my opinion inferior to Heifetz, Milstein, or Sheryng, and even more to his own 20 years earlier. Nevertheless, for the Bach violin lovers, a definite must!
12 August 2013
The obstinate chant - or Ten Holt's hold on his audience
Canto Ostinato is a major musical piece by Simeon Ten Holt, a little known composer, even by the standards of modern or contemporary music. The original score, for three pianos and an organ has been adapted here for four grand pianos. I bought the recording after accidentally watching an excellent TV documentary about Ten Holt and Canto Ostinato. The documentary dwells on the profound influence wrought by Canto Ostinato on the lives a number of people, including a woman who became his life partner and a young man who comitted suicide. It is difficult to dissect the visual from the auditory impact in the TV piece, so I have decided I would like to hear the net effect of the music.
It is not for everybody, simply because it requires a lot of patience to "get into it". The present performance runs for 145 minutes (!) through tens of repetitive rythmic variations reminding one of a fugue or a canon. Surprisingly, they are here and there peppered with melodic and lyrical interludes that are both haunting and beatiful. The overall effect is hypnotic, like endless variations on a mantra. The more you hear it, the more explicit and mysterious it seems, contradictory as it must sound. It is one of the contemporary pieces that allows the greatest freedom to the performers, being half score and half improvisation (mainly of choice from the more than 200 motives that Ten Holt wrote).
As for the recording itself, I still haven't made my mind about it. The flexibility of interpretation makes it difficult to judge. The artists, however, are at least competent. The recording itself sounds often tinny and artificial. I find it difficult to decide whether it is a bad recording or an intentional attempt to create a rough, amateurish sound.
Be as it may, buy it, put it on and sink into it.
You won't regret it, but you might be risking a row with your fellow roommates. They would find you disconnected from everyday's problems, for bad and for good!
10 April 2011
All That Jazz still works
It is always risky to watch again an old movie that you once liked. The tempo is slower, the colors less vivid, the action seems often naive. In a word, it looks dated. Not this one! Great acting by Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange and Leland Palmer. Superb directig of John Fosse and fabulous music and dancing. The action still flows effortlessly and the tempo is still good, despite somewhat long last part. A must for a serious lover of movies, music and musicals.
The repeated sequence of Visine+Excedrin+Alka Seltzer morning ritual s a classic.
Do not miss!!!